


The Winter Soldier

by AvatarAang7



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Captain America Korra, Gen, Spies & Secret Agents, Thriller, Winter Soldier AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-05-19 02:33:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14865002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvatarAang7/pseuds/AvatarAang7
Summary: Korra is struggling to adjust to her life in the world after defrosting, and fighting for freedom just isn't the same as it used to be. Everyone has secrets, everyone tells lies, every truth has a double meaning, and a mysterious assassin shows up who actually proves to be a match for Korra.Captain America: The Winter Soldier AU, inspired by the artwork from plastic-pipes on Tumblr.





	1. The Atlantian Star

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, this is exactly what it sounds like. Why? Well, mostly because I've had a pretty harsh writers block over the past few months, only trickling out a chapter a month if I was lucky, so adapting something else seems like a good way to split the difference. 
> 
> I should probably point out that you don't need to have seen the movie itself, but it would help a lot if you have at least seen the first Captain America. I'm not planning on making this a regular thing to do, but adapting what I do consider to be the best movie in the MCU is something I've been having a lot of fun with, and I hope you will too. Enjoy!

"' _Sami!_ " Korra was just moments too late, and was forced to watch on helplessly as her best friend fell down into the white abyss. Blink of an eye, gone.

She was devastated. The rest of the mission passed in a blur. Yes, they were successful in capturing Aiwei, but this made it really hard for Korra to see why she was doing it. They were stopping the Red Lotus slowly, but at this rate, the war would never be over. They were missing something, something big.

Then everything seemed to happen at once. The final assault on the Red Lotus main base in the German Alps, the  _Valkyrie_ , plunging it into the ice...

Korra shot up in her bed, breathing heavily. Her alarm clock told her it was 5:30 am, and the first hint of sunlight was just creeping in through the gaps around the windows.

She sighed. It was that same dream still haunting her. Technically, it was 70 years ago, even though it felt closer to three for her, given all the time she spent frozen in the ice. But that damning image of Asami falling into the abyss would never leave her mind.

Resigning herself to the fact that there was no way she was going back to sleep now, Korra just got up and started preparing herself for her morning run. She cracked three eggs into a glass and knocked them back raw, that was going to have to be her fuel. As useful as many modern things were, for some, she really just preferred the old-fashioned ones.

Washington DC was calm at this time of day. Korra liked it a lot better than New York, which had become so much faster and busier in the time she spent in the ice that she barely even recognized it after waking up. But this was nice. She made for the Reflecting Pool, but with so little traffic, she could make it from her side of the Potomac all the way to the Washington Monument without having to stop for traffic once, which was a good thing, considering her enhancements meant she could basically outrun most normal cars.

She had slowed down to a regular jog when she spotted someone else, also making laps around the Pool, clearly here for the same purpose. Korra smiled to herself, knowing that she could have some fun with that person, so she sped up and quickly overtook him. "On your left."

The second time, the man was quite surprised at how fast Korra was catching him. "On your left."

"Got it, on my left."

The third time, Korra was smiling even more, and the man clearly wasn't having it. "Don't say it, don't you say it!"

"On your left!"

"Come on!" His response was loud, but when it had come out, Korra was so far ahead, she could barely hear it.

By the time the sun was fully up, Korra decided she had enough. She had lost sight of the man a few laps ago, but on closer inspection, it turned out he was just sitting propped up against a tree, breathing quite heavily. "Need a medic?"

He chuckled. "Just need to catch my breath. You just did 15 miles in 40 minutes."

"Yeah, if you don't count running here, but it wasn't busy anyway, it didn't take me very long." Korra took a quick glance at his clothing, and over the green shorts she saw a shirt with a small emblem of the Air Force. "What unit were you with?"

"58th Para Rescue, but I left and took at a job at the VA." The man held out his hand, by why Korra pulled him up. "Bolin Tashi."

"Korra Waters."

"Yeah, I kind of put that together." Korra tried not to let out a sigh, but coming back to life after being presumed dead for 70 years and having saved the world twice now, it does tend to make someone famous. "Must have been freaky, waking up after defrosting and everything?"

"Takes some getting used to. Nice to meet you, Bolin."

She started walking away, but Bolin stopped her. "It's your bed, isn't it? I'm used to hard beds, but over there, I slept on the ground, and if I was lucky, nothing poked me in the back. Now I'm home, and it's like..."

"Like lying on a marshmallow," Korra finished for him. "Feel like you're gonna sink right through." Bolin was clearly still working through some stuff too, and she felt the connection. "How long were you out there?"

"Did two tours. What about you, you miss the olden days?"

Korra shrugged. "Well, it's not so bad. I like the food, you've certainly gotten better with medicine, and internet is pretty neat. There are upsides, even if I am struggling to catch up."

Bolin smiled and took a moment to collect some thoughts. "The Who, 1969, Tommy. Their first rock opera, you can't miss that."

Out came the familiar notebook that Korra had just come to carry everywhere she went for when people advised her on pop-culture she had missed. The list had been steadily growing for a while now, and she didn't quite have the time to cross things off as fast as they appeared.

Just as she was putting her notebook away, a message from Kai popped up on her phone, telling her to meet her at the curb. "Well, Bolin, I gotta go. It was nice to meet you."

"Yeah. And if you want to come over to the VA, you're always welcome there. Plus, I'd score some major points with the cute girl working the front desk if I show up with Captain America."

Korra chuckled just as Kai's bright red Camaro pulled up to the curb. "Just ask her out. What's the worst that could happen?" She turned her attention to Kai. "Subtle."

"I'm giving you a lift and all you give me is sass?"

She grinned and looked back at Bolin. "Trust me, stay at the VA." With that, Kai took off with a loud roar to his engine.

* * *

-"Coming up on the  _Atlantian Star_ , which was taken over an hour and a half ago. 25 terrorists, all high-end mercenaries, led by this guy: Viper. 43 hostages, including one officer, Tarrlok Sadna, plus the unrestricted access to a mobile satellite launch platform," Tahno rattled off. "Here's hoping that they didn't bring any nukes."

Korra was paying attention, but was also working her gear. "Now why would Tarrlok be there personally?" That was completely rhetorical, and everyone ignored it. "Any demands?"

Tahno seemed utterly unimpressed as he read it. "Half a billion, they'll let the staff go, another billion, and they'll leave the ship undamaged. It's White Lotus, so they know they can ask whatever they want."

"And all they're getting is us. For that kind of money, I'm almost tempted to join them," Kai joked.

Korra sighed. "Don't make me leave you up here."

"Don't worry, I was kidding. Why do I have to be burdened with such an unbending sense of right and wrong?"

At this, Korra couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Your sense of right and wrong is more flexible than a rubber band. Alright, here's the plan: Tahno, you and the Strike team secure the hostages. Kai, you get down to the engine room and cut the power. I'll get up to the bridge, find Viper, and take out as many of the mercenaries as I can on the way."

Everyone agreed to this, so now it really was time to put on the last of their gear and for Korra to grab her trusty shield. It was old-fashioned, but she was very attached to it.

"So I heard you give that guy at the National Mall dating advice, how come you won't take mine?" Kai asked her.

"Because you have terrible taste in women," Korra smirked back. "Both for me and for yourself, so maybe try working on that first."

"That's sounds awfully defensive. What's stopping you from getting out there and dating someone?"

Korra's smile grew as she opened the hatch. "Lack of time!" she yelled as she jumped out, knowing that she probably scared the hell out of some first-timers by not wearing a parachute. Still, not doing that, her black uniform, matte-painted shield, and the dark water meant she would be as good as invisible.

Once she was down, she climbed up the anchor chain, and managed to already knock a few overboard before she got to her first group of three. They were quite heavily armed, but Korra had the element of surprise on her side, so she threw her shield at one of them, and used a flying punch of her elbow to knock down the second one. The third had just enough time to raise his weapon, but not to fire it, so instead, Korra kicked it aside before giving him a roundhouse to the chest, resulting in him going overboard as well.

Her shield had bounced back to her by now, and that was just in the nick of time, as the first one was coming around, and just before his hand hit the alarm switch, Korra threw the shield once more, quite possible breaking his arm before she rendered him unconscious too with a kick to the face.

Now it was a race to mid-deck, take out as many of those mercenaries there to clear the landing targets of the Strike team. Korra saw five, which would make things difficult, but not impossible if she did it right.

She decided to go in the same way as with the previous group: throw shield, knock out one, flying kick into the second one, sending him into the far railing. That left three, and she just had to catch her shield to block a punch coming on from one. Korra jumped up, stretching herself out and kick one while hitting the other with her shield, putting them both down for now.

A sixth was rushing in, but she threw the shield to knock him down, letting her have both hands free to suplex the fifth into permanent submission. One of the earlier ones was getting back up, but Korra was quicker: her shield had come back to her, and she used it to punch him in the chest, putting him down for the next few weeks.

"Erstar!" she suddenly heard being yelled behind her.

Korra slowly looked around, seeing another guy had joined the fray, but this one kept her at gunpoint. She did freeze like he told her to, but before he could do anything to restrain her, he was shot in the back of the head by Tahno, who was just coming in from the air by parachute. "Thanks."

"Yeah, I don't know how you ever won World War II without me."

Kai and the rest of the Strike team landed on the deck moments after, and he didn't really seem impressed by the half dozen bodies lying around. "Seriously, lack of time is your excuse?" he said, picking their conversation back up as if nothing had happened.

"Engine room first, dating life second."

"I can do both at once," he assured her while jumping over the railing down to a lower deck.

Korra made her way over to the bridge of the ship, where they thought Viper was. She had a small device with her that allowed her to shoot a microphone at the window that stuck and let her hear any conversation going on inside.

"Sie sind spät dran." one of the terrorists said. Thank God she picked up some German back in the day, that was doing her a lot of good now.

"Sie halten uns hin." That had to be Viper. "Bereite die Kameras und eine der Geiseln vor. Wollen wir mal sehen, ob sie zahlen, sobald sie wissen, dass wir nicht bluffen."

Korra knew their time was running out. "Tahno, come in."

"Ready to move."

"Kai, status on the engine room?"

Unbeknownst to Korra, he was just busy taking on three guys at once, and had just killed the last one by breaking his neck. "Engine room secure," he said, just a little bit winded.

"Tahno, whenever you're ready."

"In three... two... one..." Korra didn't have a view of the hostages, but she didn't hear anything over the radio, which was good. Extreme stealth was the key for the moment. The longer they could keep the terrorists in the dark on the whereabouts of the hostages, the easier their mission would be.

But now came the time to bring Viper the news, which was her task. She threw her shield through the window, shattering it, just barely missing Viper, knocking out the terrorist he was talking to and lodging it in the back wall. Unfortunately, by the time Korra had climbed in and retrieved her shield, Viper had legged it.

"Hostages secure, preparing to move them to the lifeboats for extraction. Captain, Kai isn't here, he's gone dark," Tahno called in.

Damn. "Kai, come in. Move to Tahno and secure the hostages." Nothing. "Kai!" The kick to Korra's side came out of nowhere, and it knocked her clean off her feet. Impressive. She looked up, only to see Viper moving towards her, trying to get in another kick, but she raised her shield to deflect the blow. Korra was definitely on the defensive for now, and she realized Viper's skill was considerable. She took a few good kicks and punches, trying to use her shield to catch as many of them as she could, but this guy was quick.

Finally, she did manage to catch him with a kick to the ribs, putting just a little bit of distance between them. This bought her just enough time to get up, and finally assume a good fighting stance, something Viper evidently realized, as he stopped. "Kannst mich wohl nicht ohne diese schicke Platte schlagen, was?"

Korra took a moment to assess him, and she knew stalling for just a moment would be good. It would buy Tahno the time he needed and give her the opportunity to take Viper alive. "Das werden wir noch sehen," she said while putting her shield on her back.

He moved again, but this time, she was ready. They traded blows and punches, but now Korra had the clear advantage. She was so much stronger than Viper was, meaning every punch she landed counted for five of his. Finally, she had him backed up all the way to a nearby door, and she decided to put him down once and for all with a flying elbow to the chest, breaking down the door and knocking out Viper.

"Well, this is unexpected," Kai said from the side.

Korra looked up, seeing him standing there over a computer. "What are you doing?" She threw a glance back to Viper, but he would stay out for long enough to get this done.

"Checking my email," he said, but the screen betrayed something different.

"This is all White Lotus intel," she quickly realized.

Kai nodded. "As much as I can get my hands on." The progress bar reached 100% and he pulled a USB drive from a port. "But it's quite enough. Now, we have an extraction point to reach."

Korra grabbed him by the arm to stop him. "I gave you an order for a good reason. Tahno needed your help."

"I had orders of my own."

"He was with the hostages, and you risked their lives for a few files."

"I think you're exaggerating." The words hadn't left his mouth or their attention was drawn to Viper by a faint rustle, where they realized too late that he had gotten up and threw a grenade their way. Korra was quick to react, using her shield to knock it into one of the offices, while Kai pulled her down behind the computer console, buying them just enough protection to save them from the blast. They were still showered in glass and soot though, and by the time Korra looked over the console, Viper was gone.

Kai sighed. "Okay, that's on me."

"Damn right it is."


	2. Project AirBorne

Korra didn't even bother changing out of her uniform before barging into Tenzin's office. All she had done was ditch her helmet and shield so that she would appear just a little less hostile. "What the hell was that business with Kai?" she asked before even saying 'hello'.

"He just had a separate mission," Tenzin clarified.

"Then why didn't you tell me about that?"

"Because it wasn't necessary."

Korra leaned on his desk. "Viper got away and those hostages were in danger because I couldn't count on him."

Tenzin stood up as well, lauding his taller frame over Korra. "You were on that mission specifically so nothing would go wrong. Viper will show up again."

"I can't lead a mission when I can't trust the men I'm leading into it to follow my orders, because they're secretly following yours."

"I compartmentalized so that no one would know all the secrets. That ensures no one spills them."

Korra gave him a cold stare. "Keeping everything to yourself and using luck to justify it."

Tenzin nodded. "Okay. You want to know what Kai was after? Follow me." He walked out of his office and into the elevator, where they were both scanned before Korra had even realized it. "AirBorne bay."

The elevator chimed in. "Captain Waters does not have clearance for Project AirBorne."

"Director override, Gyatso, Tenzin."

"Confirmed."

The elevator started moving, and the silence between them was a little tense. Korra had just basically yelled at her commanding officer, and yet she'd gotten away with it. Maybe the prestige does bring some benefits with it. "You know, they used to play music in these."

Tenzin smiled. "The good old days." It briefly fell silent again while he stroked his goatee. "You know, my father flew in World War II. Reconnaissance, he wasn't cut out for combat. One day, he got shot down over the Occupied Netherlands, but he managed to parachute to safety. He was lucky enough to be found by resistance fighters, but they didn't know what to make of him at first, so they held him at gunpoint."

Korra was surprised by that. "They didn't realize he was an Ally?"

"It was dark, so neither of them could see very well, but only later did he realize they weren't using actual guns, it was a wooden toy," Tenzin smiled. "They were happy to see him, but they didn't trust him very much."

Korra looked out of the glass elevator, and struggled to keep her mouth open at what she saw. "Yeah, I know," Tenzin said. "We've come a long way from wooden toys."

Before her were three helicarriers, all absolutely huge, but not like the one Korra had been on earlier. These had a glass dome underneath, which presumably meant they weren't designed to land on water anymore. And as the elevator neared the floor, Korra also realized all of them had a battery of cannons underneath.

"This is Project AirBorne," Tenzin explained. "Three of the most advanced helicarriers every built, linked to a network of targeting satellites, launched from the  _Atlantian Star_. Once we get them in the air, they never need to come down, thanks to the brand new repulsor engines."

"Varrick?"

"He had some suggestions. Those are long-range precision guns, capable of shooting a specific target from an altitude as high as ten miles. The satellites can ID terrorists from space, so we'll never miss. This way, we can stop a lot of bad things before they even happen."

Korra was extremely uncomfortable with this. "Isn't the punishment supposed to come after the crime?"

"We can't afford to wait that long."

"Who's 'we'?"

Tenzin took another look at the helicarriers. "After the Battle of New York, I convinced the World Security Council that we needed to leap forward in threat analysis and ways to handle it. For once, we're way ahead of the curve."

Korra wasn't the least bit convinced. "By holding a gun to everyone on earth and calling it protection."

It seemed like that remark hit close to home. "You know, the White Lotus was founded in the wake of what you and your team did. And some of what you did was far from morally outstanding."

"I know. We did what had to be done so that people could be free, and so did your father. But this," she said, pointing to the helicarrier, "This isn't freedom. This is fear."

"You're an idealist, Korra. That's what makes you a good person. Unfortunately, the world doesn't run on idealism, it runs on truth, and the truth is often ugly. It's getting to the point where you have to accept that."

Korra really had enough of this. "Don't hold your breath."

* * *

The whole thing with Project AirBorne had shaken Korra up a little bit. Part of her did reminisce, wondering how things could have been if she hadn't crashed into the ice. She decided to go to the Smithsonian after a quick change of clothes and a shower at home, where an exhibition had opened up about her actions during World War II.

Korra had been there before, and the feeling of seeing that her friends had made it gave her some sense of comfort.

Well, except for Asami, the person who, more than anyone, she wanted to see make it through the war in one piece. A sizeable part of the exhibition was dedicated to her, their friendship, her capture by the Red Lotus and liberation by Korra, and the mission that led to her death.

The graphic showing how small Korra was before the serum was strange. It was becoming increasingly hard to remember that she used to get winded from walking up a flight of stairs, whereas now, she could run 20 miles in an hour without stopping once. She had grown nearly a foot because of it, on top of the other strength enhancements the serum brought with it.

It brought back that old question that had been ringing through Korra's head ever since she came out of the ice: had it been worth it? Defeating the Red Lotus, making sure the world was safe from them and from Unalaq, it seemed like such a no-brainer. And yet... What Tenzin had shown her threw all of that into sharp contrast. The world she left 70 years ago didn't seem to exist anymore, so did she still belong in it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the rename's a little '90s, but I did think it's pretty good.


	3. The Chase

Tenzin had been thinking about that afternoon. He knew that Project AirBorne was a necessity to keep the world safe from threats, domestic or alien. That was no longer a hypothetical, and next time, they might not be so lucky. Having three heavily-armed helicarriers in the air to clean up a mess like New York would definitely help.

And something in the back of his mind kept gnawing at him, and it was what Korra had said. " _This is not freedom. This is fear._ " There was truth to that, but she had come from a different world, where heroism was the exception to thwart the indecent variations, rather than a necessity like it was today. Today, it seemed that only constant vigilance and intimidation of evil could keep the world in order.

"Secure office."

"Confirmed."

He popped the drive Kai had given him into his desk, because he had been curious about this. "Open  _Atlantian Star_ launch file."

The computer thought on it for a moment, but then declined. "Access denied."

This surprised Tenzin. "Run decryption."

"Decryption failed."

"Director override, Gyatso, Tenzin."

The computer worked again for a few moments, confirming it was actually his voice, but still didn't grant him access. "Override denied. All files sealed on command of Gyatso, Tenzin."

This was bad. He had access to everything, being director of the White Lotus and all, but being locked out of such a key part of the operation was definitely cause for concern. If the AirBorne satellites were compromised, the helicarriers could be used in ways that neither he nor the Security Council had sanctioned.

He decided to go and visit Zaheer, overseer of the project and the goings-on at the White Lotus. He was in a meeting, but since not everyone could visit this floor, it was open-plan, and he could just catch the tail end of their discussion.

"We need a hearing of Director Gyatso. Sending someone who wears a flag on their chest and has a magical Frisbee does not mean that a highly classified operation was potentially compromised by mercenaries. How did they even get that intel?"

Zaheer actually came to his defense. "Director Gyatso handled the situation as best he could, saved the hostages and the  _Atlantian Star_. And you know just as well as I do that we're working down every possible way they could have gotten wind of this operation. Right now, it seems like it was a hijacking, and that they didn't know what the ship was for, only who owned it."

"I'm very much unimpressed, Secretary," one of the councilmembers said. "We need actions."

At this moment, Zaheer noticed that Tenzin had walked in, and decided that was probably important. The screens of the World Security Council faded to black, as they didn't need to hear all of this.

"Trouble in there?" Tenzin asked.

"Oh, just trying to keep us all employed. What brings you by?"

Tenzin took a deep breath. "I'm here to ask a favor. I need you to delay the launch of Project AirBorne."

This caught Zaheer off guard. "Tenzin, that's more than a favor. Red tape as far as the eye can see and paperwork six ways from Sunday!"

"I know. But I found something that needs clarification, could be nothing, probably is nothing."

"But if it's something?"

"Then we really don't want those helicarriers in the air."

Zaheer mulled it over, but only for a moment. "Okay. But you owe me one."

"Thank you." Tenzin shook his hand, glad that even though they didn't see eye to eye a lot of the time, they could still work together.

* * *

Korra had decided to go over to the VA, see if Bolin was there. She caught him in the middle of a group of veterans, one of whom was telling a story of how he was still haunted by how part of his unit got ambushed by a woman with a grenade.

"I just can't get her out of my head. I get nervous from everything. Even when I went to do groceries the other day, I jumped when the girl pinged the register. I thought it was the spoon of a grenade being released."

Bolin nodded. "You can't control what happened to you over there. You can only control how you deal with it. Coming here, talking about it, that's the start of that. We're all here to help you."

Korra decided to wait until the end of the meeting where Bolin was showing out the veterans. "Heavy stuff in there."

He nodded. "Yes, it was. We all feel the same things; survivor's guilt, regret for what we did or didn't do..."

"You lose someone?"

Bolin sighed. "My brother, Mako, he was also my wingman. Regular parajump rescue op, nothing we hadn't done before, until an RPG blew his dumb ass right out of the sky. Nothing either of us could have done. Felt like I was up there just to watch."

"Sorry," Korra said with a small voice, feeling bad for scratching at that old wound.

"That's the kind of thing that put things into perspective. Couldn't figure out why I should be over there, you know?"

Korra nodded. "You seem to have landed on your feet, though."

This put the smile back on Bolin's face. "Hey, I'm happy here. No one yelling orders or shooting at me, so I recommend it. You ever thinking about getting out yourself?"

Korra sighed and thought for a moment. "Maybe... I don't know. I thought the world was simpler than it really is, and fighting for it just isn't the same as it used to be. Don't even know if I'd still fit in if there was no one giving me orders."

"You can always figure something out if the military doesn't feel like home anymore," Bolin offered. "And if all else fails, you can just become a marathon runner." They both laughed, but Bolin's expression did change for the serious again. "But seriously, what makes you happy?"

Korra sighed. "I don't know."

* * *

Tenzin was on his way home, still not feeling entirely comfortable with the situation surrounding that drive. It was simply in the pocket of his jacket, as he didn't want it to somehow get lost. He needed allies, people he knew were trustworthy, but those were few. He sometimes joked that he could count them on one hand and wasn't afraid to cut off fingers.

"Open secure line to Iroh," he told his car, a heavily armored and modified SUV. Tenzin sometimes had a chauffeur, but today, he felt the need to drive home himself, give him some time to think.

After a few rings, Iroh picked up. "Hello?"

"It's Tenzin. I need you in Washington, quickly and quietly."

He was briefly silent. "I'll be there in a few hours."

Tenzin found himself stuck at a red light on an empty junction, one which a police car gently pulling up ran after sounding the siren once. He shook his head and followed when the light turned green, but he never saw the car T-boning him coming.

The car was violently shaken by multiple other cars crashing into it as well, when Tenzin realized that this was not an accident, it was an attack. The cars surround him consisted of about five police cruisers and a black van, also with a small DC Metro Police logo on it.

"Fracture detected," the car said, showing a small graphic on the windscreen of his lower right arm. "Anesthetic injection recommended. DC Metro Dispatch shows no units in your area."

That was the last thing Tenzin could hear before the gunfire started. At least two dozen men, all opening fire on him with assault rifles. He quickly grabbed a combipen from the glove compartment, which he knew contained the anesthetic the car had recommended, and shot it into his arm. This at least meant he could concentrate on something other than the stabbing pain, which was necessary for now.

Bullets were bouncing off the car all over the place, cracking the windows to the point where they were virtually opaque. "Window integrity compromised."

"Really?" Tenzin asked in a sarcastic manner.

"Yes, countermeasures advised."

"Hold that." The gunfire stopped, and through the cracks, he saw some of the fake SWAT officers pull some kind of device from the van, and positioned it near the driver side door. It had claws that were reminiscent of spreaders used by firefighters, but all Tenzin knew was that he didn't want that thing attached to his car.

"Fire the countermeasures!"

The countermeasures in question were a row of strategically placed single-shot guns on the underside of the car, ready to be lowered and fired when necessary, guaranteed to put anyone close out of commission. That's exactly what they did here: shredded the legs of the fake officers nearby, as well as doing some heavy damage to most of the police cars, most notably puncturing tires.

At this moment, Tenzin managed to get the engine restarted, and gunned it, using the power of his car to push himself free from the car in front. The road was open and now he had the advantage again.

A quick glance in his mirrors told him that two of the police cars were still chasing him, and a glance forward that he was coming up on traffic. Stuck for options, Tenzin mounted the curb in the middle, trying to stay ahead of those two police cars.

Unfortunately, the traffic slowed him down more than it did them, and once he cleared it, they were right on his tail. One of them swung out to his left, using the entire width of the road, before the guy in the passenger seat leaned out and started shooting at him with a submachine gun. Tenzin swerved to take cover behind a garbage truck, and used this moment to build up some momentum, sideswiping the police car hard, so hard that he veered off, right into the path of an oncoming semi.

One down, one to go. Tenzin knew that trick probably wasn't going to work again, so he'd have to get clever. Luckily, the other car helped him out there. It came up on his right side, swiping into it, briefly putting him off his game, what with his broken arm getting another jolt. But this was the perfect lineup. "Fire right side countermeasures!"

Because his SUV was so much higher than the police cruiser, the guns on the underside lined up more with the underside of the door, so even though it probably didn't kill them, it definitely put them out of commission.

"Get me off the grid!"

"Calculating route to nearest secure location."

Tenzin finally thought he could have a breather, but unfortunately, he was severely mistaken. While he was focused on his navigation, he missed the figure dressed entirely in black standing a few hundred feet down the road, waiting for him.

The figure raised a device that he shot off, and with a metallic clang, attached itself to the underside of Tenzin's car, where it exploded and flipped the car.

Because of the high speed he was still driving at, it slid nearly a full block on its roof, finally coming to a halt against a lamp post, which gave Tenzin the chance to reorient himself after being tossed through the car. It was a miracle he wasn't more injured from this, but the way he saw the dark figure stalking towards him didn't give him much cause for celebration.

He grabbed a little device the brilliant R&D department had put together called the Mouse Hole. Basically designed to cut through anything, giving you an escape whenever. Tenzin was just in time, because as he stumbled away through a subway maintenance tunnel, he could hear the door being ripped off his car completely. What the hell was he dealing with now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess watching Agents of SHIELD wasn't a complete waste of time, right? Right?!
> 
> Anyway, yes, I went with Zaheer to play the part of Alexander Pierce, mostly because of a line later on in the story. You'll know it when you see it. Or if you've seen the movie.


	4. Assassinated

Korra came home late. Granted, she'd spent a bit more time with Bolin at the VA, but mostly just rode her motorcycle around for a while, clear her head a little more, give her some more room to think. By now, it was fully dark, so she put her motorcycle in the underground car park and walked up to her apartment.

She arrived at the same time as her neighbor Opal happened to step out with a hamper full of laundry under her arm and a phone wedged between her ear and shoulder. "No, Mom, you don't have to worry, it was just a regular post-op. I stopped doing infectious diseases months ago, remember?"

There was some quiet muttering on the other side of the phone that Korra couldn't quite make out, but the answer left little to the imagination. "Yes, I'll find myself a date for Wei's wedding. Okay. Bye, Mom." Opal hung up and threw her phone into the hamper. "My mom is a bit of a worrywart."

"I'm sure it's well-intended. And try not to put your phone in the washing machine again." That story had even reached Korra, when a frantic Opal had done that exact thing, came looking for her phone, and found it one cycle later among her T-shirts, cleaned to within an inch of its life.

Opal smiled and made for the stairs, but after taking a deep breath, Korra stopped her. "Hey, if you want, we could go for a trial run for that wedding date."

She actually seemed a little impressed by this. "Oh? What did you have in mind?"

"Cup of coffee?"

Opal smiled. "That sounds nice, but I'm a bit swamped at the moment. How about next week?"

"Works for me." There. That would show Kai.

"By the way, I think you left your stereo on," Opal remarked before going down the to the washing room.

Korra was a little surprised by this, but didn't want to show it too much. "Oh, thanks." She definitely hadn't put on any music when she had been briefly home earlier that afternoon, so whoever had done that, didn't have an invitation.

Deciding not to take any chances, she instead went up to the roof and down the fire escape, entering her own apartment through the window, where she could also pick up her shield. It probably wasn't necessary, because even if there were burglars, she'd be able to overpower them, but best to be cautious. There was indeed some mellow jazz on her record player, which did seem strange.

Korra carefully looked around the corner, and was two things: relieved when she saw it was Tenzin, and confused when she started thinking about why he was here in the first place. "If you wanted to have a drink after work, you could have just asked."

He nodded. "Yes, I'm sorry about this, but I didn't know where else to go." Korra turned on a light, but he immediately held up his hand, stopping her from saying anything else as he also turned the light off again. But even that brief moment showed her that he was badly injured. "My wife and I are going through a rough patch."

"No kidding."

Tenzin started typing something into his phone, and Korra patiently waited for that. " _Ears everywhere, White Lotus compromised._ " "I was hoping you could help me smoothe things over."

She thought for a moment. "Who else have you told about this rough patch?"

"I'm keeping the circle small for now." He typed something out on his phone again. " _You and me._ " Korra nodded upon seeing that, after which Tenzin continued. "Just a few friends."

"I didn't know you considered us friends."

"Right now, I was certainly hoping you'd..." Tenzin never got to finish that sentence, as he was suddenly shot  _through the wall_ , before another two shots followed, both through his chest.

He fell down, and Korra quickly grabbed him by the arm, dragging him away from that spot behind the wall. She could feel his hand grab hers, and there was something in it. "Don't... trust... anyone..." After that, he fell down unconscious, and Korra found herself looking at the drive Kai had taken from the  _Atlantian Star_.

There was banging on the door, not the kind of someone knocking, but the kind of someone trying to break it down. Korra dropped into a defensive stance over Tenzin, determined not to let them make it worse.

It finally broke, and she couldn't quite make out the figure walking in. "Captain Waters, I'm Agent 7, White Lotus" said a familiar voice.

"Opal? What's going on?" Seeing her neighbor, who Korra had just asked out on a date, now walking in a tactical crouch with a pistol drawn, was an incredibly strange sight.

"I was tasked to protect you."

"On whose orders?"

Opal finally saw Tenzin lying on the floor, with a pool of blood growing underneath him. "His." She grabbed a radio from her belt and started calling it in. "Terra is down. Unresponsive, triple GSW to the chest, lost a lot of blood."

Korra saw a flash of something on the roof of the opposite building, which in the dark, she could just make out to be a human figure. "I'm going after the shooter."

Before she even fully realized what she was doing, Korra jumped through her own window, across the street, into a window a floor lower. The shooter would have to come down somewhere around here, and luckily, there was a skylight through which she could see him running over the roof. If she was lucky, she could cut him off.

The shooter jumped over the alley onto the roof of the next building, straight ahead of Korra. She just raised her shield to protect herself from the glass, rolling in behind him, and threw the shield his way as hard as she could.

That would have been enough to knock down anyone, but to her utter surprise, the shooter managed to catch the shield with one hand, and it had a strangely metallic clang to it. At that point, he turned around, which brought Korra to a shocking realization: that was no he, it was definitely a she. Yes, there was the metal arm and the mask obscuring her, but the subtly feminine features of the visible parts of her face and frame left no doubt about the matter.

Before she could fully process this, the shield was coming back her way, and even though Korra caught it, it still made her recoil from the force of the impact.

By the time she looked up, the roof was empty and the shooter was gone.

* * *

Kai rushed into the observation room overlooking the surgical procedures currently being performed on Tenzin. He was clearly shaken by the news, and quite possibly by the sight in front of him. Korra and Iroh were already there, also hoping against hope that he would make it, but she knew better. Tenzin had taken three rounds through the chest, on top of whatever injuries he already had sustained that drove him to Korra's apartment.

"Tell me about the shooter," Kai said softly, never taking his eyes of the man on the table.

"A woman. Strong, fast, has a metal arm."

"Ballistics?"

For this, Iroh took over. "Three rounds, 7.62. No rifling, they're untraceable."

"Soviet made," Kai muttered.

Even though Korra picked up on it, she decided to ignore it for now, as there were more pressing matters at hand. "Come on, Tenzin," she muttered, barely audible to the others in that room. As long as the machines he was hooked up to kept beeping, he would be fine, but unfortunately, that soon changed. His blood pressure plummeted and his heart monitor flat lined, so she was almost certain it was over.

"Get the crash cart!" one of the surgeons yelled. "200 joules, get clear!" He gave Tenzin a shock, and another one began CPR, trying to keep him alive at all costs, but it proved to be of no use. "Time of death, 4:50 am," someone said, as the machines were unhooked one at a time.

Korra decided to leave quietly. She knew that even though she and Tenzin worked fairly closely together, it was nothing on the relationship between him and Kai. Korra would have landed on her feet no matter what, but Kai was a different story altogether. He would have definitely gotten himself killed had it not been for Tenzin, so when the doctors invited them over into a small room to say their goodbyes, Korra hung further back than Kai did.

She didn't say anything, because nothing could really be said right now. But she did feel her pocket for the USB drive. Someone had murdered Tenzin for this, and he had given it to Korra. Why her? Why take such a huge risk? And more to the point, were the people responsible going to keep coming for it?

They took their time, but ultimately Iroh came in. "We have to take him," he softly told Korra.

"Okay." She put a hand on Kai's shoulder. "Come on."

Kai abruptly turned around, pushing his way past Korra into the hallway, where she followed him. "Why did Tenzin go to you?" he rudely asked once they were outside.

Korra sighed. "I don't know."

They were interrupted by Tahno. "Captain, they want you back at the White Lotus."

"Give me a minute."

"They mean now."

Korra sighed. "Okay."

But Kai knew she was hiding something. "You're a terrible liar." Even now, with his eyes bright red from crying, he could see through her. He walked off to do his thing, and Korra went with Tahno back to HQ.


	5. The Great Escape

As Korra was walking up to Tenzin's office, she tried to keep a cool face as she saw Opal in the doorway, talking with a man she'd never met but did know by reputation. Korra was back in uniform, even with her shield on her back, as they wanted the Strike team ready for the second they got something on Tenzin's assassination.

It turned out Opal was just done, so she turned as they passed each other. "Captain."

"Neighbor."

It was strange, seeing her here, but Korra had to get past that, as there were more pressing things on the agenda.

"Captain Waters, it's an honor. Zaheer Norbu," he said while shaking her hand.

"The honor's mine, sir." He was known as fiercely efficient in the White Lotus, not afraid to sustain casualties in the pursuit of the goal. A true believer in the phrase 'the ends justify the means', which Korra was in two minds about. On the one hand, that was sometimes used to justify the most awful things that she had seen first-hand, but on the other, it allowed Zaheer to be so fiercely efficient.

She walked up to the little lounge area, where there were a bunch of photos and folders spread out over the table. Korra picked one up, a very old picture of Tenzin and Zaheer together, both of them looking exhausted but satisfied.

"That was the first time we met," Zaheer explained. "A terrorist cell in Colombia had taken over an American holding of a business and taken a dozen hostages, locked in a store room somewhere. Tenzin was the Section Chief there at the time, and I thought he was stalling, while I was trying to negotiate. But the terrorists had already made up their minds, they just wanted the world's attention while they killed the hostages, so they go back to their store room to get them, and it's empty. Tenzin had found an old air vent that was just big enough to fit a person through and snuck them out one at a time. He didn't wait for authorization from me, he just did it."

"So you promoted him."

"Best decision I've ever made." Korra nodded, because that did sound like Tenzin. "Captain, why was he in your apartment last night?"

"Someone attacked him, and he thought he would be safe there."

"Do you think that's the only reason?" Zaheer clearly thought it was not. "You know it was bugged?"

Korra wasn't sure what he was getting at. "I did, Tenzin told me."

"Did he also mention he was the one who had it bugged?"

Korra's jaw clenched, because he hadn't, and probably not because it had slipped his mind. It made sense though. Tenzin knew all the secrets, and bugging someone's apartment was a good way to achieve that, even if she never did anything there worth listening in on. Not unless he was profoundly interested in the sounds of her making coffee in the morning.

"Here, you might like this," Zaheer said, picking up a remote and firing up the big screen on the wall. It showed video footage of Viper, clearly in White Lotus custody, currently being interrogated.

"Is that live?" Korra asked.

Zaheer nodded. "He was in Berlin, the GSG-9 very kindly lent a hand."

"Are you saying he's the one who shot Tenzin? It's not something I'd put beyond him."

"Unlikely, he was picked up before the first shot was fired. But he did give up something interesting: the client for his attempted hijacking of the  _Atlantian Star_. A man named Bato Harrik, or so the bank records show."

Korra raised an eyebrow. "Is that name supposed to mean something to me?"

"No, he died years ago, long before you even came out of the ice. But what is important here is that he was the previous tenant of Tenzin's previous house."

That was just crazy talk, right? "Are you saying Tenzin was the one who hired the terrorists? Why would he hijack a ship owned by the organization he's the director of?"

Zaheer sighed and leaned back into his chair. "Because there are indications that he was using the hijacking to cover up the sale of classified information. Deal went sour and they killed him because of it."

Now, that sounded extremely shaky to Korra. Tenzin cared about a lot of things, but money was not one of them. She didn't believe for a second that he would do something like that. "You've known Tenzin longer than I have, sir. The way he went about things was controversial at times, but he could not be bought with money."

Zaheer actually took this argument into consideration, but still disagreed. "You know, if there is one thing all my years in this field have taught me, it is to never assume people are incapable of something, because they always are." He stood up and walked to the window, overlooking the National Mall. "When the World Security Council was first put in place, I didn't take up the position of Secretary because I wanted to, but because Tenzin asked me to. In his heart, I think he knew something that I've said all my life; new growth cannot exist with first the destruction of the old. That mindset makes enemies."

He slowly turned around to face her again. "Captain, Tenzin was in your apartment last night, and you were the last person to see him alive. So I'm going to ask you again: why?"

Korra didn't like the tone of how he was asking that one bit at all. In fact, this whole conversation felt wrong. "He warned me not to trust anyone." The truth, but vague enough that it wouldn't actually give Zaheer anything to work with.

"Do you think he also meant himself with that?"

Her eyes narrowed just a touch. "Hard to tell, because there were three holes in his chest when he said that. They were his last words. Excuse me." She picked up her shield and started walking away, but Zaheer stopped her before she could make it out the door.

"Captain, someone murdered my friend, I'm going to find out who and why. And I won't to hesitate to deal with anyone who gets in my way.  _Anyone_."

"Understood, sir."

* * *

Never mind the fact that Zaheer had just issued what was basically a veiled threat, the thing Korra was more concerned about was what his goal of besmirching Tenzin was for. It just seemed so unlikely that he would sell information.

Unless... the one thing Korra could work out was that Tenzin somehow suspected that there was something going on the  _Atlantian Star_  that he wasn't privy to and wanted a way in. It would make sense why he sent Kai on that separate mission, and why he wouldn't tell her about it.

It was time to get some more answers. She called the elevator, still surprised by the beautiful view over the National Mall it provided, and she leaned against the railing of the back window. "Records."

"Confirmed." Right before the doors closed though, someone stopped them, but Korra didn't turn to see who.

"Operations Control," she heard Tahno say. "Captain," he then greeted her.

"Tahno." She saw three of the Strike crew, him and two rookies. For some reason, the rookies looked a little nervous, but not in the star-struck way she had become used to. One of them even had his hand on his taser nightstick, almost as if he was expecting a fight.

"Forensics are working the roof, want to get the Strike crew ready for immediate dust-off?"

Korra sighed. "No, they'll need some time anyway. Best not to pressure them."

The elevator stopped again, this time letting in another six or so people. But a closer look revealed that  _all of them_  were men, all quite young as well. Sure, these carried briefcases and wore suits, but they were all slightly too fit to be working office jobs. Their suits didn't quite look right either, almost as if they were all from a costuming department. "Administration," one of them said.

"Confirmed."

Korra kept on looking around, and some of them also looked a little nervous. The tendons in their hands were taut, clutching too hard on their briefcases. There were even some with beads of sweat running down their faces, despite the fact that it wasn't very warm in HQ.

For a third time, the elevator stopped, and now she was certain: this was going to end badly. Three more Strike members got in, all of them absolutely huge. "Archive."

"Confirmed."

That was in the very basement of the building. Whatever it was they were after her for, they didn't want to be disturbed. Korra took a deep breath. "If anyone has his doubts about this, I suggest you get out now."

Tahno was the first to make a move. He drew his taser nightstick, and trying to catch Korra right in the chest with it, knock her out. But she was quicker than that, and deflected it into the guy standing next to her. She just had the time to hit the emergency stop button, because that would probably work in her favor. Her shield had already been dragged off her back, and both of her arms were being restrained, as well as the arm of the biggest guy she felt around her neck. It took at least five men to hold her down, and even then, she still had her legs free.

That worked in her favor, because she could kick two of the men at the other side of the elevator and put them out of commission. Two of them tried putting some sort of fancy handcuff on her, one that Korra knew. There were neodymium magnets in there, so when they got attached to a piece of metal, like the bar on the back wall, it would be really hard to get free.

They tried forcing her arm up, and with a big effort, Korra just managed to hold them off and wrestle her arm free, using it to punch those two out quickly. She felt a taser on her side, finally landing a hit, but it wasn't quite strong enough to knock her out. After all, it was only designed for normal people, not people who had been injected with the super soldier serum.

Another guy came at her with another cuff, but she punched his lights out before he got anywhere close, discarding the handcuff against the ceiling where it wouldn't do her any harm. Korra head-butted the guy clamping down on her neck, knocking him out as well, but then Tahno got a lucky shot in when he kicked her cuffed wrist up against the door. The magnets immediately took hold, limiting her freedom of movement considerably, and Tahno immediately took advantage by tasing her again.

There was someone else still standing, who tried getting a punch in, but Korra leaned back just in time, making him hit the door instead, probably leaving him with a fractured hand. She used her free arm to elbow Tahno in the face, buying herself a few seconds to put her feet up against the door and push off as hard as she could, just enough to rip the handcuff loose.

Now it was just her and Tahno left standing, and he had grabbed tasers with both hands. "Sorry, Cap, but this ain't  _personal_!" Korra deflected his first strike, but he still managed to catch her with the second taser, giving her a good shock. It hurt, but she still had enough of her wits about her to push his arm away and punch him in the face, before grabbing him by the waist and smacking his entire body into the wall, putting him down as well.

"Then why does it feel personal?" she asked herself, now that everyone in the elevator was knocked out. Korra picked her shield back up, broke off the magnetized handcuff, and hit the button to keep going.

The doors opened up, showing a hallway full of men with guns, all directly pointed at her. "Drop the shield, hands in the air!"

Korra knew there was only one way out here; swing around, using her shield to cut the cables, drop as far as she could before the emergency brakes cut in. But she knew that she wasn't safe yet. They literally had her in a cage, and even though she was too high-profile to just disappear, if she wanted to find out what was really going on, she couldn't do that from a White Lotus cell.

With how far the elevator had already gone down the normal way and how far it had just dropped, a look out the window revealed her way out. The glass ceiling of the atrium paired with her shield would cushion her landing enough to be survivable. Probably.

Korra sighed. "This is a bad idea," she said to herself, before pushing off from the doors and jumping through the glass, falling the rest of the way, balling up behind her shield to cover as much of herself as she could. But as the famous saying goes, it's not the fall that hurts, it's the landing.

That was very true in this case as well. It took her a few seconds to rebound from that fall, which was probably going to leave her black and blue come tomorrow morning. But it was key to get moving quickly, as that would have bought her some time, but not much.

Korra immediately made for the garage, where her bike was waiting for her, and as soon as she kicked it to life, she gunned it. That was a good call, as she had to duck to avoid the closing door, but at least she had made it out of the building.

But her troubles were far from over. As soon as she was on the access bridge, a quinjet came flying after her, hovering over the road surface in front of her. "Captain Waters! Stand down, or we will open fire!"

Korra had a sneaking suspision that wasn't an idle threat, one that was confirmed very quickly. They didn't exactly give her much of a chance, to be honest. She swerved from left to right to avoid the rain of bullets, until she was close enough to throw her shield at it. Now, throwing a shield at a military aircraft wasn't going to do much, which was why she targeted the most vulnerable part: the rotor on the top of the wing.

It immediately jammed, causing the right wing of the aircraft to fall, and the pilots struggled to maintain control, giving Korra the opportunity to jump on top of it from her bike and retrieve her shield. The let the rotor fire back up, giving lift back to the right side of the plane and almost jettisoning her off.

With a little bit of luck, she ended up on the opposite end of the quinjet, just managed to jam her shield into the wingtip, and pull herself onto its back again. Korra threw her shield at the two engines at the back, severely damaging them both, and as she jumped off on the other side of the barrier, looked back to see the aircraft crash into the ground. For now, she was in the clear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I know the fight with the quinjet was a lot more impressive in the movie. Go look it up, because my description isn't all that good, but I wanted to get this chapter done.


	6. Hiding In Plain Sight

"Eyes here." Opal looked up from her screen, and saw Korra's face up on the large monitor as her gaze was drawn down to Tarrlok. "We check the bridges, subway, airports, and highways. I want every camera in the city to go through this screen right here. Use facial recognition if you have to. We are going to find her, no matter the cost."

Opal was not comfortable with this at all, and judging by the tense atmosphere in the room, neither was anyone else. "With all due respect sir, if we're conducting a manhunt for Captain America, we deserve to know why."

"Because she lied to us," came a voice from the back of the room. Zaheer slowly walked in among the people, and something about him told Opal he was a bit too comfortable with the situation. "Captain Waters was the last one to see Director Gyatso alive, and is witholding information about why he came to see her. We want that intel." He looked up at the screen. "As difficult as this is to grasp, Captain America is now a fugitive."

It was a thin explanation, but it were her new orders, and Opal had no choice but to comply with them. If they wanted to find her neighbor so badly, she could at least do her best to make it happen in such a way that they bring her in alive.

* * *

Korra had quickly ditched her uniform and shield in a little shack that she kept off the radar for precisely this contingency. At first, she thought it was unnecessary, but Kai had convinced her otherwise. It was a good place to stash clean clothes and a few hundred dollars so that she could at least have a headstart.

Unfortunately, it turned out her secret hiding place wasn't so secret after all, because when she stepped outside, Kai was leaning against the wall near the door. "You know, you could have been a little less obvious... And I'm pretty certain you've lost something."

She looked around to see if anyone else was watching them, but luckily, there wasn't, so she shoved him back inside. He was talking about the drive from the  _Atlantian Star_ , something she had noticed was no longer in her pocket. "Where is it?"

"Safe, don't worry."

"That's not good enough."

Kai was trying to figure her out as well. "Tenzin gave it to you. Why would he do that?"

"So that I could find out what's on it, and you're going to tell me what."

"I don't know, I only did as I was told."

"Stop lying!" Korra had just had about had it with lies and half-truths coming out of everyone she worked with.

"You know he compartmentalizes, right?"

She gave him a good, long look. "I bet you knew Tenzin hired the hijackers."

This struck a nerve with Kai, as he clearly didn't. "No, but it makes sense."

Her patience was finished, so Korra placed one hand on his arm and one on his shoulder, with her thumb already over his windpipe, because she was going to get that information. "I'm tired of playing games, now tell me the truth."

"I know who killed Tenzin." That was enough to make her back off a little bit, make her position a little less threatening. "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe she exists, the ones that do call her the Winter Soldier. She's credited with dozens of political assasinations, dating back all the way to the '50s."

Great. More smoke and mirrors. "So it's a ghost story."

"A ghost with very real bullets. A few years ago, I was with an informant in Brazil. Apparently, the Winter Soldier wanted him too and I was inbetween her and her target, because she shot him... through me." Kai lifted his shirt a few inches, revealing the scar of a bulletwound. "7.62, no rifling. So much for my career as an underwear model."

Korra had trouble not scoffing. "Yeah, I bet you're unsightly now."

"Don't waste your time going after her, I know, I've tried. It's a dead end. Like you said..." Kai pulled the flash drive from his pocket. "She's a ghost story."

He had pickpocketed her in the hospital after all. "Then let's see what the ghost wants."

* * *

Zaheer was fighting an uphill battle here. "Tenzin was murdered in cold blood. Most people would call him a martyr, not a traitor."

"He's a traitor because he hired terrorists to hijack his own ship, risking the integrity of Project AirBorne that relies on secrecy."

"You've been used by Tenzin, Secretary Norbu. You two had a good working relationship, but he exploited that to cover up his own illegal activities, and to delay the operation in an attempt to keep this Council in the dark. At best, he lied to you."

Zaheer had a sinking feeling where this was going. "Are you calling for my resignation?"

"That discussion is not the pressing matter right now. The pressing matter is immediately reactivating Project AirBorne, which we have decided to do."

He took a deep breath, knowing there was nothing he could do.

* * *

Turns out Kai was better at hiding than Korra was, because he immediately took them to one of the busiest malls in DC. "First rule of going on the run: never run. Plain sight is often the best place to hide."

She definitely hoped that was true, but a hoodie, glasses without correction and a baseball cap would cover her up fine. There were benefits to mostly being known in a uniform. They made for a computer store, where Kai took out the drive again. "This thing has coding to send out its location to the White Lotus when it's plugged in, so we don't have much time."

"How long would you give us?"

"About 10 minutes." He started working the coding, but quickly even Korra could see that he was struggling. "Damn. It's like it has some sort of AI, I can't crack it. Whoever wrote this was somewhat smarter than I am."

"If there's nothing you can do, we should get out of here."

"Relax..." Kai was surprsingly calm, given the circumstances. "There's one thing I can do; run a tracking program, see where it originated." He went back to furiously typing on the laptop, when they were interrupted by a store employee.

"Can I help you with anything?"

Kai was the one to do the quick thinking once again. "Oh, no, I'm just looking at some holiday destinations with my girlfriend."

"Well, that sounds nice. Where are you gonna go?" The employee asked just as the computer was done with the tracking program, so Korra threw a quick look on the screen.

"New Jersey." There was a brief moment of hesitation in her mind, when she decided to double down on Kai's bluff. "Are you sure you don't want to re-roll that?"

"Yeah, let's."

This seemed to satisfy the employee. "Well, enjoy your trip." Then he got something of a look of recognition on his face. "Wait a minute..." he said, taking a closer look at Korra, who was worried that he would recognize her. "I think I have that same hat."

She chuckled to cover up letting out a sigh of relief. "Wow, good taste."

"Yeah. Anyway, if you need anything, just let me know."

He walked off, much to their relief, upon which Korra checked the clock. "Come on, our 10 minutes are up."

"Got it." Kai moved over a little bit, and Korra leaned in, making sure that she hadn't misread what the computer was telling them. "Do you know it?" he asked.

"I used to. Come on, we need to move." Outside, she basically knew immediately this was going to end badly as well. Korra counted six Strike members, all in teams of two, and that was on this floor alone. There were probably others as well elsewhere in the mall. "You seeing what I'm seeing? I'll draw them out, you make a run for it, be ready with an escape route."

Kai was not impressed by that idea. "Shut up and play along, same as in the store." He put an arm around her and leaned into her shoulder, sort of obscuring their faces from the Strike team coming straight for them, who managed not to see through it. There was something of a nervous chuckle coming out of him, and it worked. Korra threw a quick look over her shoulder, and with that, they made for the escalators.

That went without a hitch, but there was a new problem: it was busy, and she could see Tahno coming the other way. Someone they had been on so many missions with, he would  _definitely_  see through their disguises, and Kai knew it too. He was a step down, but turned around. "Kiss me."

"What?"

"Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable."

"Yes, they do."

They were out of time, and he just made it happen, pulled himself up by Korra's neck, pressing their lips together. There wasn't really much there, even though it was pretty clear to Korra that it wasn't the first time he'd used a ruse like this.

After Tahno passed, Kai broke away and started walking down. "There, wasn't so bad, right?"

"I've had worse."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is late people, I've been a little busy, but mostly, I kind of... forgot I had this already written before the last chapter even came out. Oops.


	7. The Red Lotus

Luckily, New Jersey wasn't too far from Washington DC, so it was doable by car. Kai managed to catch a few hours of sleep while Korra drove, since she was the one who knew the way anyway.

"Hey, wake up," she shook him awake. "Coming up on New Jersey."

Kai sighed as he looked out the window. "The Garden State, always wanted to go here."

Korra chuckled. "Oh, it's not so bad when there aren't any drill sergeants shouting at you. At least it's cheaper than New York."

"Gee, I wonder why that is." A brief silence fell. "Okay, tell me something. Well, you don't  _have_  to tell me, but I feel like no answer kind of is an answer, you know?"

" _What_?"

"Have you kissed anyone else since 1945?"

Korra took it as somewhat of an insult. "I take it you weren't impressed."

"Well, I didn't say that..."

"Does sound like that's what you were saying."

"Hey, if you're a bit out of practice, that's fine."

"1945 is a lot longer ago for you than it is for me," Korra shot back.

"Doesn't matter, you can still be out of practice."

"It wasn't my first kiss since 1945." Sure, it came off as more than a little defensive, but at least it shut Kai up for a moment.

Unfortunately, only a moment. "No one special in you life, huh?"

Korra scoffed. "Well, finding someone with shared life experience has proved to be rather difficult."

Kai thought on that for a moment. "Never been a problem for me, just make something up. Truth is more a matter of circumstance, not everyone needs to know all of it all the time."

"That's a hard way to live."

"It's an easy way to stay alive, though."

The way he said it told Korra that he wasn't entirely happy with that fact either, more like a weary resignation to that fact. The one, undeniable, inescapble truth of being a spy: no one knows everything. And no matter how good you are at hiding it, secrets weigh on a person. "Makes me wonder... How much of what you've told me is a small part rather than the full version?"

Kai took a moment to let that sink in. "Enough, depending on what you want me to be."

"How about a friend?"

He chuckled. "Not a lot of friends in this business."

By the time the sun had just about set, they made it to their destination. Kai pulled out a little gizmo he used to track the origin of the files, but that wasn't the most important part to Korra. "It definitely came from these coordinates," he said.

Korra just stared at the sign next to the entrance. "So did I." The base where the selection procedure for the super soldier program had taken place.

They quickly scaled the fence, taking a look around. It was eerie to see how little the place had changed since she had last been here. Abandoned places always had that sensation, but this was one that Korra had been familiar with when it had been bustling with activity. The barracks were still there, the paths, even the flagpole that had been used for the training.

"Well, this was a waste of time," Kai sighed. "It's abandoned, there's nothing here, not even anything running on power."

Korra took a look around, and spotted something off. "Wait a minute..."

"What is it?"

There was one building here that definitely wasn't there 70 years ago. It appeared to be an ammunition bunker, but they would never build it this close to the barracks. "This building is in the wrong place." Korra used her shield to bust open the padlock, granting them both access to what was clearly a hidden office.

Not that it mattered much, because it was just as abandoned as the rest of the base. The technology there was ancient, rendered obsolete yeas before Korra came out of the ice. Heck, probably even before Kai had been born.

Strangely enough though, Korra noticed something of a draft down here, which was unexpected. They were underground, there shouldn't have been a draft. "Kai, you feel that?"

"Yeah... Here." A bookcase with a slight gap in it, and even though it took some persuasion from Korra, it did open to reveal an elevator. "If you're working in a secret office, what could be so bad that the elevator needs to be hidden?"

"Probably not for the sake of interior decoration," Kai remarked. They rode the elevator down into a large open room, full of huge steel magnetic tape drives, each the size of a fridge. Even though Korra was behind the times, she was fairly certain she wasn't as behind the times as this hardware, because they were computers. Even stanger, when she pulled the switch, the lights did come on.

"Is this where the program came from?"

Kai didn't seem to think so. "That's impossible, there's no way you could write something so advanced on hardware this old. There's probably less computing power in here than in a laptop."

But there was one thing that caught her eye. On the desk with the integrated CRT screen, there was a distinctly modern USB port, which stood out like a sore thumb. "So what's this doing here?" Korra asked. She popped the drive into it, upon which the whole facility started buzzing. Magnetic tapes started rolling, and a screen flashed to life. "Captain Waters, Korra, born 1918. Special Agent Fong, Kai, born 1984," a voice said.

"This has to be some kind of recording," Kai posited.

"I am not a recording," the voice over the speakers said as the monitor came alive with a very crude depiction of a man in simple black and green lines. "I've changed since the good Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am  _alive_."

On another screen, a face Korra knew all too well showed up, this one probably from an old file. "Dr. Aiwei worked for Xai Bau and the Red Lotus during the war. He died years ago."

"Do I sound dead to you, Captain?" She had to give him that, he didn't. "After I received a terminal diagnosis, it was decided my mind had to be saved, even if my body couldn't be. So we devised a way to do that, on the most advanced databank the world has ever seen."

Still didn't answer a basic question to Korra. "How did you end up here in New Jersey? You would have been convicted of war crimes."

"I was invited," Aiwei smugly said.

Kai sighed. "Operation Paperclip. After the war, the US government recruited hundreds of German scientists in secret, offering them lower sentences in exchange for full cooperation. Anything to get an edge on the Soviets."

"That was their plan," Aiwei continued. "But I had plans of my own."

Korra wasn't convinced. "The Red Lotus was a cult of personality, all built around Xai Bau, it died with him."

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." The databanks started whirring a little louder as another screen popped to life. "The Red Lotus was founded to prove that chaos is the only way people can live. We sought to achieve that during the war, but where we miscalculated, is that when you try to upset the established order, people resist. The war taught us much, so we had to seek different ways of achieving our goals. We needed more refined techniques, and also more sudden ones. For years, the Red Lotus has been waiting, biding its time, only taking action when we were threatened to be exposed." The screen show another old file, a blurry picture, but Korra did recognize it as the Winter Soldier with her metal arm. "I made sure that it could grow, as a parasite inside the White Lotus. And now, it has given us everything we need to achieve our goals."

"Project AirBorne," Korra whispered as she saw the three helicarriers on screen. "What's on that drive?"

"The Project requires intel, so I wrote an algorhythm to provide it."

"What kind of algorhythm, what does it do?" Kai quickly asked.

Aiwei's image smiled. "That's a great question, with a fascinating answer. Unfortunately for you, you'll be too dead to hear it."

Kai's gizmo beeped at the same time as the door suddenly started closing behind them. Korra threw her shield in an effort to block it, but she was just too late, and it bounced off. "Korra, we got an incoming missile."

"What?!" She quickly looked around, seeing a cable gutter in the ground, covered by a grid, that she ripped off. "Come on!" Kai jumped in and Korra covered them both up as best she could with her shield, but it was key to just make themselves as small as possible. A deafening blast ripped through the room, followed by a massive wave of heat, and the room falling to pieces above them.

Luckily, the larger pieces either didn't land on top of them or just over the cable gutter, but they didn't get crushed. Korra could still see out a little bit, so with all her strength, managed to just lift the pieces of concrete up high enough for them to escape. She had to support Kai on their way back to the truck, because Korra knew the White Lotus would sift through the rubble until they were found.

As she dropped him in the passenger seat of their 'borrowed' pick-up truck again, they both sighed when Korra pulled the door shut behind herself. "What are we going to do now? We have nothing. No place to go, no allies, no objective, no leads. We're screwed," Kai ultimately finished.

Korra thought for a moment, places they could potentially go, which weren't many. The White Lotus would monitor everything they could get their hands on, all their known associates, maybe every place they've been to. Motels and hotels would raise red flags the moment they got a room key, even restaurants were risky. "I think I know one place, but it's a long shot, and it's back in DC."

Kai nodded. "Well, since I don't have any better ideas, lead the way."

* * *

Tahno knew that finding the Captain dead was going to be satisfying. She beat up him and nearly a dozen men in the elevator without breaking so much as a sweat, escaped the most secure building in the world, and slipped through their grasp at the mall. It was way beyond personal for him.

But as he and a team were sifting through the rubble of the destroyed secret office, they didn't find anything. Not one trace that somehow, Waters or Fong were even injured during the airstrike.

"Sir!" someone called out from the edge of the compound. "You need to come and see this."

Tahno followed him to just outside the gate and found himself staring at an empty, dead-end road. "What am I looking at, Private?"

"Tire tracks," he said, pointing his flashlight at the ground. "These are fresh, but aerial recon is reporting there are no cars in the immediate vicinity. They got away."

He sighed. "Damn it. Call HQ, we're going to need the asset."

* * *

Zaheer, in spite of his advancing age, was still intent on staying in shape, which he was fairly successful in. Being middle-aged did mean it was harder than it had been ten years ago, but he still went out for a five mile jog every night before bed.

And tonight was no different, until he made it back into his kitchen.

Waiting for him in the dark was the Winter Soldier, unbreakingly staring at him as he poured himself a glass of water. "Want one too?" Silence. "We've encountered problems. Two targets for you, priority one. They're standing between us and successfully launching Project AirBorne, and they need to be removed - quickly. They'll surface again, and when they do, you need to take them out."

She stood up and walked away, but Zaheer stopped her. "They won't be easy to put down. Don't underestimate them."

The Winter Soldier showed nothing as she left.


	8. A New Wingman

Korra felt bad about doing this, but they really had no other option. Knocking at Bolin's door at 6:30 am would be considered ungodly for most people, but he most likely had been out on his morning run.

This was confirmed when he actually came to the door, still sweaty from his run and in training clothes. "Hey..." Bolin hesitantly said.

"I'm sorry about this," Korra opened. "We need a place we can lay low."

"Everyone we know is trying to kill us," Kai added.

Bolin took a quick look around and nodded. "Sure, come in."

He was kind enough to let them use his shower so they could at least get freshed up a little bit, and Korra and Kai ended up in the guest bedroom, now finally able to let their guard down. "Are you okay?" she asked him.

"I think so." He sighed when Korra sat down next to him on the bed. "It's just... when Tenzin pulled me off the street, he took a risk. The sensible thing for him to do was to just order a hit, but no. He took me in, gave me new purpose. Sure, it involved killing, lying, stealing, but that was nothing I haven't done before that. Now I'm not so sure anymore it was the right call after all."

"It's a tough way to live," she said with a small smile.

Kai chuckled, but soon went back to his more serious face. "Korra, I'm gonna ask you something, and I want you to be honest with me. If I had to be the one to cover you and pull you out of the rubble... would you trust me to do it?"

She thought for a moment. "I would now. And unlike you, I'm always honest."

It did make him laugh. "You seem to have taken this whole 'you actually died for nothing'-business pretty well."

Korra chuckled. "Oh, it's not so bad. It gave me exactly what I wanted: knowing who I'm fighting."

Bolin interrupted their little heart-to-heart. "I made some breakfast if you want."

Kai stood up and pulled Korra to her feet as well. "This one here is always hungry, in case you're wondering."

She blushed a little bit. "It's true, I am."

Turns out Bolin's cooking was pretty good, as he made them scrambled eggs and toast, which was very welcome. Part of being on the run was just forgetting how hungry one gets, particularly Korra, whose metabolism burns a lot faster than the average person's.

But it wasn't enough to stop them from figuring out what had happened to them. "So who would have the authority to launch an airstrike in the middle of the continental US and get away with it?" Kai thought out loud.

"Zaheer," Korra said. "The White Lotus has the missiles and the means to launch them, and he has his target. But he can't be working alone. If what Aiwei said is true, then there are a lot more Red Lotus members than we previously thought. And now we have to find them."

"But how do we weed them out from the actual White Lotus agents? Without just putting a gun to Zaheer's head."

Korra smiled. "We can't touch him, he's too heavily defended. We need someone who's easier to get to, someone..." She thought for a moment, before the lightbulb went on. "The  _Atlantian Star_. We found Aiwei's algorhtyhm there."

"And we also found Tarrlok," Kai finished that particular train of thought.

That did lower the bar, if not much. "So now we only need a way to kidnap a White Lotus officer in broad daylight. Can't imagine that would be a walk in the park for the two most wanted people in the country."

Bolin walked over the a bookcase and pulled out a thin file. "No it wouldn't be, but you wouldn't have to," he said as he threw it on the table. Attached with a paperclip was a picture of Bolin and another man in full what looked like advanced parachutes and nighttime camo gear.

"What's this?"

"My version of a resumé," Bolin said.

Kai was very curious. "And when was this picture taken?"

"Four years ago, in Afghanistan."

But Korra did piece it together. "This is Mako, isn't it?" she asked, referring to the second man in the picture, to which Bolin gently nodded.

"I've never seen gear like this," Kai remarked. "What were you flying, stealth chutes?"

Bolin actually lit up at that. "Better," he said, pointing to the rest of the file. Korra picked it up and thumbed through it, seeing that it was some sort of jetpack with retractable wings, which did look pretty sweet.

But she had her doubts. "I can't ask you to do this," she said. "You had a damn good reason for hanging up your wings. Literally, in your case."

"Hey, if Captain America is asking me for my help, that's a great reason to strap them back on again."

She nodded. "Fair enough. Now I wouldn't imagine you have one of these stuffed under your mattress, right?"

"No," he shook. "The last one is at a military base in Maryland, in their equipment vault. Heavily guarded, and with the bounties you have on your heads, we wouldn't even get close."

Korra smiled. "You're talking to a spy and a super soldier. It's not gonna be a problem."

* * *

Now it was all a waiting game for Bolin. It hadn't taken Korra and Kai long to find Tarrlok, but they couldn't wait for him out in the open, so they instead let him handle that with a precise set of instructions.

Soon enough, he saw the man walking out of a restaurant he was instructed to call. "Agent Tarrlok, did you enjoy your lunch? I've always been a fan of their tapas."

"Who the hell is this?"

"The handsome guy in the sunglasses in front of the red car." When Bolin caught Tarrlok's eye, he raised his glass to him.

"What do you want?"

"We're gonna have a little face to face chat. Blue car on the opposite side of the street, you're going to get in it and then we'll take a ride."

He didn't seem impressed. "Give me one good reason I should listen to you."

"Because drycleaning can't fix bulletholes," Bolin said, seeing the little red dot from the laser pointer appear on Tarrlok's chest. Korra with her impeccable timing.

* * *

Korra had dragged Tarrlok up to the roof of a tall building and she all but threw him through the emergency escape. Kai was with her, Bolin was waiting for her cue again. "What's Aiwei's algorhythm?"

Tarrlok scrambled to his feet, clearly intimidate by her. "Never heard of."

"I'm sick of people lying to me. Why were you and it on the  _Atlantian Star_?"

"I had my orders, as did you." By this point, he had been backed up all the way to the edge, and only by virtue of Korra grabbing him by the lapels didn't he fall off. "Are you gonna throw me off the edge, Waters? Doesn't really seem like your thing."

She smiled and pulled him a little bit further back. "You're right, it's not. But it's his," she said, stepping aside to give Kai space to kick him in the chest, sending Tarrlok falling over the edge with a loud scream.

Not that it mattered to Kai, he was pretending once more they were walking in the park. "Did you ask that cute nurse out yet?"

"I did, but it turned out she was spying on my as well. I'd rather not have that."

At that point, Bolin came flying up the side of the building while carrying a still screaming Tarrlok, before dropping him back onto the roof and landing a few yards away, wings folding back into his backpack.

Still it succeeded in getting him to talk. "Aiwei's algorhythm is a program! For... For choosing AirBorne's targets."

"What kind of targets?" Korra asked.

Tarrlok didn't seem happy to be spilling the beans. "You, Varrick, the Secretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in San José, anyone who is a threat to the Red Lotus, now, or in the future."

This confused Korra. "Future? How would it know that?"

Tarrlok actually laughed at this. "How wouldn't it? The 21st century is a digital book, and Aiwei's algorhtyhm can read it." When he got nothing but confused looks from the other three people on the rooftop, he elaborated. "Come on! Your bank records, voting patterns, medical history, school grades, social media posts! The algorhtyhm uses the past to predict the future, and then..." He fell silent, but Korra didn't have the patience for that.

"Then what?"

"Oh God, Zaheer is gonna kill me..."

"Then what?!"

Tarrlok sighed. "Then the AirBorne helicarriers scratch people off the list... a few million at a time."

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I went with Kai for Black Widow instead of Mako like it was in plastic-pipes' artwork, and swapped out Bolin for Jinora while I'm at it, but while the reason for that second one will become clear in the next chapter, Kai might require a little more explanation. I think that in the movie, Black Widow is michievous, but does have a good sense of humor, even if a flexible sense of right and wrong, and I felt like Kai fit that character profile a lot better, since Mako never displays any personality beyond 'brooding misery guts'. So that's why.
> 
> Anyway, let me know what you thought of this, and if you did, well, you can expect updates soon. And special thanks to Kainorian for the German translations. Take care, folks!


End file.
